Welcome to the First Year Blog!
Welcome back! It has been lovely to hear so many amazing stories about the pupils’ winter holidays this week, whether it was celebrating Christmas with family, trips domestically or abroad, or just relaxing at home, it sounds like everyone enjoyed their time off! Fortunately there have been plenty of happy faces in the corridors back in School this week, although I know some are still getting used to the early wake-ups again!
The start of a new term is always a good time to look for new opportunities. It’s an excellent time to try a new club or society, and if you’re a keen writer I am always looking for more blog authors too (come and see me on Wednesday at break (10.55am) in G23!) We’re also looking forward to the Interform competition continuing, with Interform Chess, Football and Rugby coming up this term – more on this from your tutors in the coming weeks.
All the best for the term ahead!
PROJECT EXPLORE LAUNCH
Project Explore is an exciting opportunity for all First Year pupils to get involved in! You should visit a local site that you are interested in, tell your Form Tutors about your visit, and with some inspiration from your visit produce your own project. There are no guidelines on what you can make: you could choose to write a poem, cook a meal, make a piece of art, record and edit a film, or any other creative piece you can come up with! The deadline for Project Explore is Monday 22 April – just after the start of the summer term. I know all Form Tutors are looking forward to hearing about your visits and projects, so make sure you tell them all about it!
Mr Hill and Mrs Peattie have recorded this video to explain everything in more detail. All First Year parents have also been sent an email with a more information.
A LOOK BACK
Alex B (1L) takes us back to the Christmas Concerts and his moment of walking onto the stage!
My heart thumped. The crowd applauded and cheered. I had been dreading the moment for the whole day. I had finished my Biology test and my English test on the same day. My heart was feeling restless. Suddenly, everything seemed to happen in slow motion, like one of those action movies. Something else latched onto my mind for one horrible second. If I was one of the last to appear on the stage, it could only mean one thing. I was singing and dancing in the front row! I walked up the stairs, while everyone in the crowd was staring at me. At the front, conducting the first song was Mr Ferrier, I tried to keep my eyes on him, but I just couldn’t and I ended up staring straight up to the crowd. During jingle bells I was already nervous, but when there was a small accident, I became even more nervous, as about eight hundred pairs of eyes looked down at me. I decide that it was a once in a lifetime moment and I knew that there were no second chances so I sang as well as I could in the two Christmas songs.
I’m sure you’ll agree that the Christmas Concerts were fantastic. Take a look at the video below for a reminder of the two wonderful performances by our First Year choirs.
MY CHRISTMAS BREAK
Shaurya D (1L) tells us all about what he got up to over the New Year period:
The day before New Year’s Eve.
On this New Year’s Eve, I had a wonderful time. Me and my family stayed in Blackpool for three days. I travelled there by car with the customary stop at the services…which I normally spent window browsing for novelty books & games on offer. It took me five hours, that felt like a whoosh, to reach there! Me and my parents entered and checked in the hotel. I entered my spacious room which had a magnificent and glamorous sea view. I played some Uno for a while, with my mum and then watched some TV. After that we decided to go to Pizza Hut to have dinner where I gorged on some scrumptious pizzas and devoured some hot brownie and cookie dough with ice cream. Subsequently, we went to Blackpool Tower and saw the awesome lights series displayed on it, along with the delightful fun fair opposite it.
New Year’s Eve
We went to the Blackpool Fair after eating churros and danced there in the artificial snowfall. Then we walked to a Christmas themed circus/magic show inside the Tower. It was so windy and rainy. It was so hard to walk. When I entered the circus, I was soaking wet. Although I was extremely wet, the circus cheered my mood up by a mile. It was marvellous as there were loads of illusions, magic tricks, singing with dancing. I loved the illusion where the circus master swallowed fire!! Another one was where he juggled sharp knives while riding on a unicycle.
New Year’s Day
Blackpool was a spectacular stay to start the new year 2024. Before we said farewell to Blackpool, we went on the beach that was surprisingly sunny with gusts of wind blowing from the Irish sea. We always try to make the first day of the new year with a spiritual start, so this time we went to Shri Venkateshwara Balaji temple located near Birmingham. This temple is more than 27 years old and is largest of its kind in the UK and Europe whereby they get half a million visitors every year. I got spiritual uplift by chanting ‘Govinda, Govinda’ and enjoyed the lovely and satisfying rice prasad (food served by the temple) there.
Hampton Innovations
Do you have an idea that could revolutionise the environmentally friendliness of the School? Maybe you want to convert the School fields to a wind farm, sell Hampton’s waste to foreign markets or invest heavily in green toilet paper stock! The wilder and more creative the better. Enter as an individual or as a team (a problem shared is a problem halved after all).
All you have to do is fill out this form linked here.
From the entries submitted, the best, the wackiest and the most well thought out will be shortlisted to present their ideas at a fair to battle it out for ultimate glory …. well … a TROPHY and a PRIZE.
Give it a go, see how far your hairbrained scheme will take you. Final entries for shortlisting will be on Friday 26 January 2024, so plenty of time to get your thinking caps on. If you have any questions please email Miss Towler.
TUTEE OF THE WEEK
Every week, the First Year Tutor team nominate a pupil who they have been particularly impressed with, and Mr Hill and Mrs Peattie provide him with a football to use on the fields for the week!
This week’s tutee of the week is William M (1P) for all his kindness, enthusiasm and getting stuck into all things Hampton – well done William!
SPECIAL SHOUT-OUTS!
We love to hear about what you have been getting up to outside of school and to celebrate your successes in the First Year Blog! Please do send any information about any of your achievements through to Mr Fuldner (d.fuldner@hamptonschool.org.uk).
THE HAMPTON HUNT
Each week I will set you a challenge where you need to find out a random fact, number or indeed anything else around the School – you won’t be able to do this from home! Points for the interform competition will be awarded to the Form with the most correct entries over the course of the term! You have until the end of Wednesday to complete the challenge; you will find out in next week’s blog if you’re correct, and you will be given a merit by your Form Tutor the following Monday. And who knows – you might get to know the School better in the process!
The last challenge of the autumn term: How many Christmas trees are up around the School?
The answer was four: you might have seen the trees in the Main Hall, Dining Hall and Reception, plus one in the Sixth Form Common Room, hence the need for help from your mentors! Well done to Arjan C (1L), James A (1H), Avyaya S (1B) and Charles B (1F) for getting the correct answer! Make sure you collect a merit from your Form Tutor next week!
If you did know the answer but didn’t enter it into the blog last week, make sure you do so this week as it won’t count otherwise!
This week’s challenge:
which concert is taking place in the Hammond on the 26 January?
I’m sure you know where to look for the poster!
